Moscow court hands TV Rain journalist Mikhail Fishman two years in absentia

The court convicted Fishman under Part 1 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code, Mediazona reported, citing the ruling; the outlets Ostorozhno, Novosti and TV Rain also reported the decision.

Prosecutors had sought three years of imprisonment and a four-year ban on administering internet resources. The court imposed a three-year ban.

According to the prosecution, Fishman continued working for the television channel out of a long-standing disagreement with the policies of the Russian authorities and hostility toward President Vladimir Putin and the Russian army. The case file states that the journalist formed a "criminal intent" while disagreeing with Russia's "main directions of domestic and foreign policy."

The defense argued that the journalist is effectively being prosecuted for his work, and that investigators established no concrete actions constituting the elements of a crime.

Fishman was added to the register of "foreign agents" in December 2022. The Prosecutor General's Office designated structures linked to TV Rain — SIA TV Rain (Latvia) and TVR Studios B.V. (Netherlands) — as "undesirable" in July 2023. The agency cited the dissemination of material from "extremist organizations," "terrorist" organizations and "foreign agents," the "discrediting" of the Russian authorities and military, and "fakes."

Fishman became the first employee of the channel to face a criminal case for participating in the activities of an "undesirable organization." In late October, TV Rain CEO Mark Ten was sentenced in absentia to five years in a general-regime penal colony on a charge of organizing the activities of an "undesirable organization" (Part 3 of Article 284.1 of the Criminal Code). The channel's founder, Natalya Sindeyeva, is being tried in absentia under the same article, and a case for participating in an "undesirable" organization has been opened against anchor Nadezhda Metalnikova.

Several TV Rain journalists have previously been convicted in absentia in Russia on charges of military "fakes" and failure to fulfill the duties of a "foreign agent."